The biggest threat to preserving wealth across generations may not be market volatility or family conflict, but whether beneficiaries are ready to manage what they inherit, according to new research by Sun Life Asia.
The new 11-page “Passing the Torch: When legacy means more than money” report published in September 2026 has revealed that there is a significant shift in how people across Asia think about the legacy they want to leave behind.
The report found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of people surveyed intend to pass on values, knowledge or life lessons as part of their legacy plan alongside financial assets. At the same time, 70% worry their wealth may not be preserved beyond the next generation and only 20% say they feel fully prepared to pass on their legacy today, reinforcing the growing recognition that a lasting legacy depends not only on what is passed on, but whether future generations are equipped to manage it.
While legacy planning is becoming more common across Asia, only one in five people say they feel fully prepared to pass on their legacy today. The Sun Life Asia s latest Passing the Torch: When legacy means more than money report found a significant shift in how people across Asia think about the legacy they want to leave behind.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of people surveyed intend to pass on values, knowledge or life lessons as part of their legacy plan alongside financial assets. At the same time, 70% worry their wealth may not be preserved beyond the next generation and only 20% say they feel fully prepared to pass on their legacy today, reinforcing the growing recognition that a lasting legacy depends not only on what is passed on, but whether future generations are equipped to manage it.
The study also found that legacy planning continues to gain momentum across the region. The proportion of people with a fully documented and communicated legacy plan more than doubled from 10% in 2025 to 22% in 2026, while the proportion with no plan at all fell from 31% to 15%.
Sun Life Asia Chief Client and Distribution Officer David Broom said, “A legacy plan is not complete simply because it’s been written down. It needs to give families a shared understanding of what the wealth is for, what principles should guide its use, and how the next generation can carry that responsibility forward. That is how planning on paper becomes something that can endure in practice.”
This is Sun Life Asia's second annual legacy planning survey, following 2025's Passing the Torch: Building Lasting Legacies in Asia. The fieldwork for the study was conducted in August 2026 across six markets – Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam – gathering responses from 3,073 people across wealth levels and generations.